


Just Deserters

by androidkisser



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 16:54:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11787411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/androidkisser/pseuds/androidkisser
Summary: “It's almost time, you know,” whispered A2. “If you still won't stay.”





	Just Deserters

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I wrote this in the space of a couple hours because of like one throwaway comment I made to my friend about this so here you go!  
> There's literally almost zero 2B/A2 on the entire internet and that makes no sense and it's a total crime.
> 
> Leave a comment if you liked it or wanna see more of them or something idk!

2B always felt safer around her – as if there were some part of her that needed to be held in the way that only _she_ could hold her. She could never open up to anyone else, selfish though it was – the other girl had more than her fair share of problems – though she never complained.

So it was that she lay on the forest floor with A2, her boots, visor and weapon discarded alongside hers, as they looked up at the gaps in the canopy, listening to the short bursts of birdsong. All around them, the corpses of a veritable army of machines were piled up, a testament to the combined strength of the two. How else were they supposed to find a place to talk, anyway?

2B rubbed her nose against A2's, before kissing her cheek softly, finally settling her head back into the crook of the deserter's neck. She made a soft, contented noise.

“It's almost time, you know,” whispered A2. “If you still won't stay.”

2B remained silent. _Just another hour. Another minute. Another second. Anything._

“Guess that's a no,” she said with a sigh.

This wasn't the first time. Nowhere near. Not that either of them knew how many times it had been, any more – A2 had long since made sure to stop counting, and 2B simply deleted the number on the spot every time she remembered it. It was easier, that way.

She wondered why, or _how_ YoRHa hadn't caught on, by now. She was an executioner, not some simple combat model. She was designed for this. Her mission should have been completed a year ago.

But every time she was assigned to kill A2, the last thing on her mind was running her through with her sword. Of course, the first times were unsteady. 2B had even gotten the upper hand, once, but found herself unable to follow through. Once A2 had realised she was beaten, she simply threw her sword to one side, and told her to get on with it. But there was something very different about killing someone who wouldn't be back in their bed in the Bunker the next day, as hard as that was on its own.

When she had stayed her hand and fled, she simply told Command she had been unable to locate the target, and there'd be another chance.

The next time, she had come to A2, unarmed. The other girl had eyed her warily, but sheathed her own weapon. They talked, for a time, though 2B knew she couldn't feign incompetence a second time in a row. The missions weren't exactly a free-form operation, and she knew that she would either have to report her success, or...

She asked A2 to do what had to be done, and so she herself awoke in the Bunker a day later, a little disoriented, but her memories mostly intact.

Her act of sacrifice didn't gain her the trust of A2 that day. Nor did it the next time she sought her out. As she recalled between her periodic wipes of the facts, it wasn't until the twentieth time or so until A2 had decided to open up, even the slightest bit.

“You know I can't,” 2B said, most definitely echoing a previous conversation on the subject.

“No, I don't,” huffed A2, shifting position to lean her back against the trunk of a nearby tree, leaving 2B to lie on her back, facing the sky once more. “I only know that you _tell_ me you can't.”

“It just isn't that simple.”

“It is from where I'm standing,” sighed the other girl, who had apparently been bottling her feelings up for quite some time. “It's like you see me as some god-damn comfort blanket now. Just some loser to run to when things aren't all that.”

2B looked up.

“What is it? Pity? Obligation? Selfishness? I'm starting to feel like I'd be getting fucked with less if I spent my days getting to know a god-damn moose.”

“It isn't like that at all,” 2B muttered under her breath.

“Sure feels like that,” A2 retorted. “What happened to the things you used to tell me? 'Just waiting for the right time'? 'Soon, I promise'? How long am I supposed to wait? How many times do I have to gut you in front of me?”

2B knew that feeling all too well. Watching the light leave someone's eyes never grew any easier.

“It doesn't hurt,” she mumbled, sheepishly, “I'm not messing with you, I just –”

“ _Please,”_ said A2, leaning over her, her long silver hair playing across 2B's face gently. Her expression had lost its rough edges, and she now looked on the verge of tears. “Please, just give me one good reason why you can't...”

“Because, I...” began 2B, before trailing off. How could she admit something like that? “Isn't the fact that I keep coming back to you enough to prove that I truly mean the things I say?”

A2 shook her head sadly, closing her eyes before the tears threatened to fall. “No,” she whispered. “It's not.”

2B's pulse rate rose. She didn't know what to say, and even if she did, she felt as if the words would turn to rocks in her throat.

“I want you to stay with me,” choked A2. “I don't want to be on borrowed time, I – I don't want to fucking kill you any more, you hear me? I don't care if it's not _real_ , I'm done with that shit, I'm done with watching people die, I've had enough, okay?!”

“But it isn't death,” whispered 2B. “Not really...”

“I – I can't _do it_ to someone I... it reminds me... of...”

For the first time she had ever seen, A2 broke down into heavy sobs, sobs that wracked her entire frame, and she was disgusted to have been the one to cause it. For the first time, she looked small, and weak. Not even at the moment of her defeat did she look pathetic, even for a second. These were the worst sights and sounds that her mind had ever processed.

She hadn't even realised how selfish she had been. A2 had even confided in her about A4. The girl she had loved with all of her being. Her sacrifice. 2B felt nauseous.

Turning over and reaching out, she cupped A2's chin with her fingers, and forced her to look up at her.

“I'm sorry,” 2B said, softly. “I've been a coward.”

“So fucking tell me,” begged A2. “Please.”

“I'm scared,” she replied, her voice shaking. “I'm terrified. I'm terrified of living your life. I'm terrified to join you in it. I'm terrified of every single part of it.”

“You've died to be with me a thousand times over, and you're scared?”

“That isn't death,” spat 2B, though the anger wasn't aimed at A2. “You've... you're in a worse state every time I see you, and I don't want to watch you fade away to nothing... I – I'm not brave like you are, I'm not the person you think I am. I _can't_ be by your side just to watch you lose yourself, I just... I can't.”

A2 simply watched her speak. She needed to hear it all. Every word.

“I can call it throwing my life away every time, but it isn't even that,” 2B hissed, bitterly. “Sometimes... I wonder if they even went ahead with using your data for us, at all, because I'll never... I _can't_ be as strong as you.”

“Do you really believe that?” asked A2, after a long pause, her voice still quivering. Neither of them had spoken for a time, but a hundred thousand words had passed through the gaze they held.

“Yes,” she whispered, resentful.

“Then could you just – can you let me keep us both safe, then, if that's really how you see me?” implored A2, settling down next to the other girl on the grass. 2B's eyes fell to her blackened legs, and the peeling skin on her arms, then looked away. “Hey, look at me – _look_ at me – I'm not going anywhere.”

“You say that, but without maintenance, and the proper parts, you – we'll _both_...”

“Then I'll swallow my god-damn pride and get us what we need from Anemone, or Pascal, or whoever,” said A2, quickly. “You won't even have to go near them. I'll take care of it. Shit, I'll do whatever it takes, alright?”

2B felt as if she would follow suit and begin crying herself. The sheer emotion that went into those last sentences almost tore her apart at the seams.

“How can you be so – you're just... you never...”

A2 met her lips before she could finish that sentence, capturing 2B's in a display of pure adoration. They moved against each other slowly, for what felt like an eternity.

“Alright,” breathed 2B, breaking away. “Alright. I'll... I'll stay.”

A2 looked as if she would burst into tears again for a moment, then shook her head. She knew better than to threaten the security of the tentative decision that had just been made.

“I promise, I'll do whatever you need,” whispered A2, her breath soft and warm against 2B's ear, sending a tingle down the length of her body.

“You will?”

“ _Anything.”_

She meant it, too. She knew everything about 2B that there was to know, now. Everything from her real designation, to what she found pretty, what she spent her spare time doing, and now, her worst fears. She knew how much she loathed killing. That was one thing they had in common. A2 had almost laughed at the thought of someone using even the tiniest slice of her personality data for a model designed to execute someone else.

2B looked deeply into the other girl's eyes, finding nothing but honesty.

“You're beautiful, you know,” she said, finding her spot to nestle into A2's neck once again.

“Shut up,” whispered A2, though she flushed pink, or darker grey in places where the artificial skin was coming away from her cheeks.

“No, really, you are,” 2B repeated, a shaky sigh of relief, but also one of trepidation, escaping her lips.

“We have the same god-damn face,” A2 said, a tiny smirk crossing her features.

“Your smile is prettier,” 2B stated, matter of factly. “Your eyes are softer. They're caring.”

“They're the _same –_ ”

“No, they aren't,” she said firmly. It was clear that even if her statements were baseless, she wouldn't be backing down.

A2 decided it was a small price to pay to cave over something so idiotic, if she truly intended to be hers forever.

“You're right,” she said, “mine is prettier.”

2B snorted, then laughed, as if all her worries had simply evaporated on the spot, into the humid forest air.

 _You're pretty fucking wrong, actually,_ thought A2, looking down at the perfect smile that she'd seen only a lucky handful of times, beneath her.

Not that she'd say it.

 


End file.
